The legacy of Andrew L. Gotianun, Sr.

“Whenever I go out, I always ask about new business trends. I look for business models which can be done at home. I bring home lots and lots of materials to read. Right now, I am looking into energy.”

I could hear those words as clearly now as when I first heard them from Andrew L. Gotianun, Sr. about five years ago.

Mr. Gotianun was not just a personal friend and mentor. He was also a benefactor of the Municipality, later City of Muntinlupa which I was privileged to head some years back.

Mr. Gotianun built from scratch his huge Filinvest business empire (property development, financial and banking services , sugar millling and refining , hotel and resort management, power and water utilities).

Pushing 83 at that time, he should have been enjoying retirement. But no, he was still exploring new ventures. This time, he was looking at power generation.

Three years ago, Filinvest’s power firm – FDC Misamis Power Corporation (FDC Misamis) began constructing a 405 MGW coal-thermal power plant, consisting of three generating units of 135 MGW each, in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.
Two years ago, FDC Misamis also won the bidding as IPPA Administrator for the output of the Mt. Apo 1 and 2 geothermal power plants located in North Cotabato.
The first unit of the Misamis Oriental plant started to operate in July this year. The second unit in August. And just last Thursday, Mr. Gotianun’s dream of supplying Mindanao with cheap power was fully realized with the inauguration of the third generating unit of his ‘pet project’.
The combined outputs from the Misamis Oriental plant and the Apo Geothermal IPPA contract will total 500 MGW – enough to meet the the bulk of the power requirements for the whole of Mindanao in 2016. According to Mindanao Development Authority, Mindanao will need 500 MW of new capacity in 2016, another 500 MW by 2020 and 1,600 MW by 2030.

Company officials say the Misamis Oriental plant “employs the latest in clean generation through the circulating fluidized bed boiler (CFB) technology.” This technology is “considered as the cleanest process to burning coal” and is also known “for having higher steam generation, thus lowering carbon emission.”

Company officials add that the CFB process “creates negligible nitrogen oxide levels while generating useful by-products such as calcium sulfate for cement production.”

Coal generation is relatively cheap. While 80 per cent of our coal requirements are imported (mostly from Indonesia), the 20 per cent can be sourced locally.

Mr. Gotianun was not around during the event, having joined our Creator just last March. His daughter, Joji Gotianun Yap, Chairman and CEO of the Filinvest Group, said her father would have been very happy to witness the full implementation of his last legacy project “which provides power at the most affordable cost and in the most reliable way with technology that protects the environment.”

Fresh from my email inbox Just could not resist sharing this bit of good news which I received from Don Cesar Teodoro L. Sevilla II, Corporate Governance Officer of Bank of the Philippine Islands.

“We formally received advice yesterday from the Fund Managers Association of the Philippines (FMAP) and the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), that BPI has been chosen as one of the first recipients (Mid-Cap) of the inaugural Institutional Investors’ Governance Awards.

A joint initiative between the FMAP, ICD as well as the Trust Officers Association of the Philippines (TOAP) and Philippine Investment Funds Association (PIFA), the award is given by Institutional Investors to listed companies based on their ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard rating.

The recognition will be awarded to the BOD Chairs and Presidents/CEOs of the respective companies on Thursday, October 6, 2016, 12:00 noon, at the Manila Polo Club during the FMAP Investors’ Forum.

BPI is part of the select group of only 15 publicly-listed companies to receive this award, listed below, in alphabetical order: